The “Magic Box”
When designing this Church Tadao Ando wanted to give an introvert and spiritual space that would gain sacredness and power through the interplay of the light with the materials and the geometry. The building is a simple concrete box of 113 m2 (6×18m), intersected by a freestanding wall rotated by 15 degrees. There are few openings but each one of them has its very own importance.
Undoubtedly the most important is the cross-shaped one on the south-eastern facade, just behind the Altar. It works at the same time as the trademark of the building, since it shows its use. When looking at it from the outside at daytime, it looks almost black, like a solid cross made of darkness, on the white concrete. Late in the morning intense light comes into the church through it; then the cross seems white and immaterial. almost like vapor. The space right next to it seems darker than it actually is, and this deformation proves how greatly the architect can manipulate his tools. Ando says “there is a cross Iloating in the air; a pure shape is made abstract and sacred”. Throughout the day the cross is always present at the end of the corridor more or less luminous, two or three dimensional, showing the congregation the way to God.
The biggest opening is the 8sqm one on the western facade and it is cut through by the rotated wall. Two different triangular spaces are created by this rotation. Light is filtered by the wall before or after getting into these spaces, so that only one part of it will actually make it in the church. So there we find light conditions we don’t often come across. They are two transitional spaces where one can see what Steven Hall calls “penumbra”-the limit between light and shadow, an intermediate status of light where that is neither a wave or a particle: it’ s like particles of shadow are floating with particles of light .
These two main openings through their pure form help us measure time as well. Absolute time can be counted by the cross and Transparent-or paused time can be counted by the western opening. Thus, thanks to its sharp geometry, the whole building can be seen as a solar clock, since it produces specific shadows according to the position of the sun. In this building light besides an element of lighting is also the representation of nature, as nature for Tadao Ando is its fundamental elements, which helps people come closer to God. In his effort to achieve that relationship. he uses geometry, which he thinks is the way of man to impose his logic on nature. The austere and brutally simple space creates a feeling of isolation and ascetic giving the proper conditions for spiritual elevation which, almost like a version of Plato’s Cave, gives us the chance to see our surroundings in a different. purer way. At the same time it is coherent to another universal truth, the way human brain works as it is expressed by the Gestalt Theories of Space Organization. According to these theories, a simple space is much easier for humans to perceive, remember and use, even in bad conditions of lighting. So it wouldn’t be too much to say that this church is actually a spatial prototype, Integrating features beyond any particular tradition, culture or religion. And all that is accomplished just with the SimpJest geometry possible. and the use of light.
The Diamond or the Kaleidoscope
The building Complex we are studying is in Dresden, on a triangular site between Pragerplatz and Pragerstrasse. It follows the form of the site and as many of the works of Coop Himmelb(l)au it is characterized by complicated geometries and turned axes. It consists of two different buildings. The first one is the Cinema Complex and it is placed towards the street its form being rather solid. The second one, the Crystal-which we will study in detail- includes the reception and all kinds of supporting facilities for the Cinemas.
When studying the light at this building it is very important to bear in mind that there is no point in looking for details. As the way the architects design is instinctive, making the building work as a whole. It is a five floor tall irregular multifaceted prism made of glass,leaning almost dangerously to the south-west. Its geometry is full of narrow angles. The structure is made of steel and it seems really weight-less as if the building is ready to fly. This irregularity also continues inside the building. Allover the place there is a network of steel elements that represent the stairs and elevators as well as some freestanding parts of the
structure, and some closed prisms of different sizes and materials housing several facilities.
During the day as the sun moves and the light changes, the building looks from the outside like a strangely cut diamond that glows. The effect varies according to the angle of each lace of the prism and the position of the sun. Inside it the rays of the light penetrate the glass and produce multiple reflections on the thousands of metal and glass elements there are inside the building. Volumes, reflections and intersecting glass panels interrupt the view to the square. At the same time the strange and unpredictable geometry leads to the phenomenon of Parallax: The perspective distortion from one point of view to another, making it practically impossible to understand what you see at each time. According to Anthony Vidler. the buildings of Coop Himmelb(l)au work like machines for the awakening of the senses, where the viewer is obligated to have himself shred to pieces along with the building and at the end get re-created.
In addition to the hallucinating image produced by all the above, here come to add all the shadows given by every single element! They are more solid if they come from the structural features and less if they come from the glazing. Their intensity and color are different in relation to the material, the size and the color of their generator, as every single one absorbs and reflects the light in a different manner. The multiple parts of the cell create inter-covering shapes of color and light and in addition to the distortion of each shadow the result is at least frantic and unpredictable. All that explains how the Crystal works as a real kaleidoscope, giving the user the chance to view variable images of the interior and the exterior and to experience multiple qualities of lighting in a game where the reality is mixed with the virtual.
All these effects change minute by minute as time passes depriving us of the last systemof reference we could wish to have in this flooding if images and sentiments. Only at nighttime can we see the building unchanging. Then it seems like the glass border between the interior and the exterior is gone and the building becomes actually public.
Once again we saw how inseparable a factor light is at the design process and how in collaboration with the geometry of a building it can create a whole palette of feelings and phenomena proving once again right Luis Kahn who had noticed the link between structure and light.
